Ethiopia's resettlement plan falls short on development

GAMBELLA: When the Ethiopian government asked Thwol Othoy if he wanted to be resettled, he agreed, attracted by promises of a better life - a clinic, school for his children and land to farm.

But he now struggles to feed his family. After moving from western Ethiopia to the tiny town of Abobo in the Gambella region, he was allocated less than half his previous two acres on which he used to grow maize.

"The food is not enough," said Thwol, 35, sitting by his thatched hut, barefoot and in tattered shorts with an open shirt exposing his bony chest.

Thwol and his family were moved off government-owned land under the east African nation's two-year-old commune programme, which pools scattered rural residents into new communities, ostensibly to provide them better access to services.

But some rights groups and observers fear the programme has another goal: to shove farmers aside for eager -- and often foreign -- investors who cultivate land for crops that will be exported to fuel rocketing food demand in China and other developing nations.

"Livelihoods and food security in Gambella are precarious, and the policy is disrupting a delicate balance of survival for many," Human Rights Watch said in a January report.

The government aims to resettle 1.5 million of its approximately 82 million people by next year. Officials say there is nothing sinister about the plan.

"Any society that's scattered, there's no way you can hear their voice or ensure social and economic services," Federal Affairs Minister Shiferaw Teklemariam said. "It is better to (create) organised set-ups."

Ethiopian land is wholly owned by the socialist-leaning government, which leases it out to companies and individuals for farming or livestock grazing.

In the Gambella region dense with vegetation and blessed with regular rain and a large river 200,000 people, or just over half the region's entire population, are due to be resettled over the next three years. Close to 90,000 people or 20,000 households have already been moved.

The fields along the river in Gambella are vibrant green and brim with rice husks, but in Kir, a nearby resettlement village, resident Obuk Ojulu said the land was not as fertile and that he had to rely partly on state grain handouts.

"Where we were before, there was good land," said Obuk, 25. "Here it is not good."